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The Road to El Dorado
The Road to El Dorado is a 2000 animated comedy film by DreamWorks Pictures. Harry Gregson-Williams the music score. He collaborated with Alan Silvestri. The soundtrack features songs by Elton John and Alice Cooper. The film only airs on The WB around the time of Christmas. Plot In Spain 1519, two con artists, Tulio (voiced by Kevin Kline) and Miguel (Kenneth Branagh) win a map to the legendary City of Gold, El Dorado, in a rigged gambling match. Accused of cheating and getting chased by a bull, the two evade capture and hide in barrels, which are shortly loaded onto one of the ships to be led by Hernan Cortes (Jim Cummings) to the New World. During the trip, they are caught as stowaways, but manage to break free and take a rowboat with the help of Cortes' horse, Altivo (vocal effects by Frank Welker). They land at an unknown shore at the edge of South America, and Miguel begins to recognize landmarks stated on the map. The map leads them to a relief outside of a waterfall. As they try to decipher the markings on the relief, a young woman approaches them, chased by a number of guards. The guards see the image of Tulio and Miguel riding Altivo as the same on the relief, and believing them to be gods, escort them and the woman under the falls and into El Dorado, truly a city made of gold. Tulio and Miguel are brought to the city's elders, Chief Tannabok (Edward James Olmos) and wicked medicine man Tzekel-Kan (Armand Assante). While Tannabok warmly welcomes them to the city, Tzekel-Kan mainly sees them as a way to enhance his own standing. After celebrations offered by both Tannabok and Tzekel-Kan, the two are taken to private quarters along with the woman, Chel (Rosie Perez), who has seen through their ploy but offers to help maintain it as long as they take her with them when they leave. Tulio tells Tannabok the next day they are only here for a visit, but will need a boat built to leave the city with the gifts the city has showered them with; Tannabok says it will take them a few days to construct a vessel. As they spend time with the locals, Miguel finds the city peaceful and expresses interest in staying. Chel encourages Miguel to continue to explore the city, allowing her to become closer to Tulio. When Tzekel-Kan sees Miguel playing Tlatchli (an ancient South American ball game ), with children, he demands that the gods play against the city's best players. During the match, Tulio and Miguel are clearly over-matched, but Chel replaces the ball with a rolled-up armadillo, allowing the two to cheat and win the game. During the match, Tzekel-Kan sees a small cut on Miguel's forehead, and realizes that they are not gods. To show this to the rest of the city, Tzekel-Kan conjures a giant stone jaguar to chase them through the city. Though somewhat intimidated at first, Tulio and Miguel manage to outwit the stone jaguar, causing both it and Tzekel-Kan to fall into a giant whirlpool, thought to be the entrance to Xibalba, the spirit world. Tzekel-Kan comes to outside El Dorado, where Cortes and his men are searching for gold. Tzekel-Kan, thinking Cortes is a god (a reference to the fall of the Inca Empire), quickly offers to lead them to El Dorado. With their boat completed and loaded with treasures, Tulio is ready to leave but Miguel announces that he will be staying. As Tulio and Chel start to leave, they spot smoke on the horizon, realizing that Cortes and his men are quickly approaching the city with the help from Tzekel-Kan, hoping to take it over. To protect the city from the Spanish troops, Tulio determines they can use the boat to slam against rock formations under the waterfall path that will cave in and block access to the city, but they will need to give the boat enough speed to do so. The city's residents start to pull down a large statue to create a wave to propel the boat, but Tulio cannot get the sails up to give the boat enough speed to avoid the statue. Miguel forgoes his chance to stay in the city and jumps into the boat with Altivo to finish hoisting the sails. The boat clears the statue in time, and Tulio's plan is successful; though the boat and its treasures are lost, the entrance to El Dorado is sealed for good. Tulio, Miguel, Chel, and Altivo hide as Tzekel-Kan brings Cortes and his men towards the waterfall. Once Tzekal-Kan finds out that the entrance has been blocked, an angry Cortes takes this as a lie, and orders his men to place Tzekel-Kan into custody for leading them for nothing. Cortes and his men then march away with a humiliated Tzekel-Kan in their hands. Tulio, Miguel, and Chel, though disappointed they lost their treasure, take off in a different direction for a new adventure, unaware that Altivo still wears the golden horseshoes he was outfitted with in the city, and prefers to keep that fact to himself. Cast *Kevin Kline - Tulio- one of two main protagonists (Miguel being the other). He and Miguel are con artists who pretend to be gods so they can get gold. He is the planner who wanted to leave El Dorado with the treasure. He falls in love with Chel, a beautiful woman from El Dorado. Miguel is his best friend. *Kenneth Branagh - Miguel- one of two main protagonists (Tulio being the other). He and Tulio are con artists who pretend to be gods so they can get gold. He is the fun-loving one who wanted to stay in El Dorado. Tulio is his best friend. *Rosie Perez - Chel- the deuteragonist. A beautiful young woman from El Dorado who discovers Tulio and Miguel's con and plays along with their con. In exchange, she will return to Spain with them and get some of the gold. She falls in love with Tulio. *Jim Cummings - Hernán Cortés- the merciless and ambitious leader of the expedition to find El Dorado, and the main antagonist. Cummings also plays additional voices. *Armand Assante - Tzekel-Kan- the fanatically insane medicine man who has a fixation for human sacrifices and voodoo. He serves as the secondary antagonist of the film. *Edward James Olmos - Chief Tannabok. He is the kind chief who welcomes Tulio and Miguel. *Tobin Bell - Zaragoza *Frank Welker - Altivo- Cortés' horse who ends up teaming up with Tulio and Miguel. *Duncan Marjoribanks - Acolyte - Tzekel-Kan's henchman Trivia *The movie was intended to start a series, but because of poor box office results, the sequels were cancelled. *Voice artists in animated movies usually record their parts alone, with no other actors in the studio with them. In a break with this tradition, Kevin Kline and Kenneth Branagh recorded their dialogue together. *''The Road to El Dorado'' was a challenge for the studio because most of its creative efforts were used in The Prince of Egypt. Category:The Road to El Dorado Category:Movie Category:Movies